: carrying on in honour of the mother of our LORD. In all Madrid not a single street or house is to be found, which is not decorated with a portrait or bust of the Virgin. Incredible is the annual consumption of flowers made use of in Spain for crowning the Virgin's image; incredible the number of hands, which are continually employed from morning till night in dressing her caps, turning her petticoats, and embroidering her ruffles. Every Spaniard regards the Virgin in the light of his friend, his confidante, his mistress, whose whole attention is directed to himself, and who is perpetually watching over his happiness. Hence the name of MARY hangs incessantly upon his lips, mixes in all his compliments, and forms a part of all his wishes. In speaking, in writing, his appeal is always to the Virgin, who is the guarantee of all his promises, the witness of all his transactions. It is in the name of the holy, blessed Virgin, that the ladies intrigue with their gallants, write billet-doux, send their portraits, and appoint nocturnal assignations. The funeral pomp and parade which characterize the Spaniards at their burials of the dead is inexpressibly great. Upwards of an hundred carriages, five or six hundred priests, and monks, with at least 2000 flambeaus, form the ordinary appendage of a common funeral*. These things are deplorable, and shew the very low, degraded, and superstitious state of that nation. The use of the Inquisition, however, in that popepriest-ridden country is still more shocking than all their other superstitions put together. What a curse have the Priests of Christendom been to Christendom! How many precious souls have been led into the pit of destruction by an ungodly, superstitious, and idolatrous priesthood! I was almost going to say, that we Parsons have been the means of damning - more souls, than ever we were a means of saving! From our profession it is, that iniquity diffuses itself through - every land! God forgive us! we have been too bad! Instead of being a blessing, and spreading health and salvation through the nations, as is the undoubted design of the Gospel of CHRIST, and the Christian ministry, * Vide Monthly Magazine for Feb. 1798. we : we have been playing into each others hands, have erected a huge fabric of worldly dominion for ourselves, and have brought down, and are at this moment bringing down, the Divine judgements upon every country where we have erected our standard. We Protestants will be ready enough to allow that this hath been the case in the Catholic states: but it is also true, if I mistake not, of the Protestant Bishops and Clergy. We will not sacrifice one inch of the secular dominion we have, through the weakness and folly of men, obtained; no not to save the kingdom from destruction! The sécular and superstitious conduct of the Heathen Priesthood brought ruin upon the Pagan nations; the secular and superstitious conduct of the Jewish Priests brought ruin upon the Jewish nation; the secular and superstitious conduct of the Catholic Priests hath brought ruin upon the Catholic nations; and the same kind of secular and superstitious conduct of our Protestant Bishopsand Clergy will involve us in similar destruction. Nothing can prevent this but the ecclesiastical reform so frequently mentioned and alluded to in these papers! What reason is there to begiven why a wicked, careless, lukewarm, and secular Protestant Priesthood should not be punished as well as those of other denominations? As our light and privileges are the greater; we may justly expect our punishment will be the more severe. If there is a God in heaven who regards the actions of men, and who respects the completion of his own predictions, we may be assured the day of darkness is coming, unless prevented by a change in our conduct. See Jeremiah xviii. 1-10. Surely at the present dread period, we, of all people, ought to take the alarm, and use every endeavour to remove whatever may subject us to divinejudgements. My daily prayer is for the safety, welfare, and prosperity of my King and Country. But when I look around me, I cannot help being exceedingly affected at the present melancholy state of most of the neighbouringnations. Thesun, moon, and stars, are all darkened; and the powers of heaven are shaken. Is not the sun set and perished in France and Poland? Are not Holland, Flanders, Switzerland, Geneva, Genoa, Sardinia, Savoy, Treves, Cologne, Venice, Rome, the Italian Italian dominions of the House of Austria, and the little sea-girt empire of the Knights of Malta-are not all these revolutionized and fallen? Do not the Kings of Prussia, Naples, Spain, and Portugal, and even the Emperor - himself, at this moment tremble on their thrones? And doth not the same power, which hath accomplished, is accomplishing, and will accomplish similar changes in all the continental states, denounce the most complete destruction to the British empire? What then can save us from the threatened calamity? Nothing under hea- ven, but a national reformation, by which we may engage the divine protection. Hitherto the LORD hath wonderfully helped us; and I pray God effectually to help us in time to come: but this we have no solid reason to expect, for any great number of years, unless the rubbish of human ordinances shall be removed out of - CHRIST'S kingdom, the church, and a very general moral and religious change take place among us. Oh! that I could sound an alarm into the heart of our excellent King, and into the hearts of our Princes, Nobles, Bishops, Clergy, Gentry, Tradesmen; and into the hearts also of all the inferior orders of society! It is reform, or ruin ! The 1260 prophetical years are expiring! Reduce the REDEEMER's religion to its primitive purity and simplicity, or he will come in judgement, and plead his own -rights*. Let any man, any Bishop, any Clergyman, say and prove that these things are not so, and I will openly retract all that is here advanced. The Popish constitution is overturned in Rome this very year; and 1260 years from this time the Roman Pontiff began his secular dominion in that proud and idolatrous metropolis of the Christian world, through the expulsion of the Goths by BELISARIUS the Roman general † !-All flesh is as grass, * The propagators of Infidelity in France before the Revolution raised among themselves and spent no less a sum annually than 900,000 pounds sterling, in purchasing, printing, and dispersing books to corrupt the minds of the people, and prepare them for desperate measures. And similar means are at this moment carrying forward in this country, in no small degree, to accomplish the same purposes. While we Parsons are asleep, crying peace and safety, the enemy is sowing his tares ! + I mention the Goths and BELISARIUS again in this place, because I wish to draw the Reader's attention to this remarkable accomplishment of Scripture prophecy. grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever ! And shall we be so blind and selfish as to suppose, that all the rest of the nations shall fall, and we alone be preserved ? Amen! Amen! May my King and my Country live for ever! We readily grant, therefore, you see, MYCOUNTRYMEN, the corruptions of Christianity shall be purged and done away; and we are persuaded the wickedness of Christians so called, the lukewarmness of professors, and the reiterated attacks of Infidels upon the Gospel, shall all, under the guidance of infinite wisdom, contribute to the accomplishing this end. The lofty looks of lordly Prelates shall be brought low; the supercilious airs of downy doctors and perjured Pluralists shall be humbled; the horrible sacrilege of Non-residents, who shear the fleece, and leave the flock thus despoiled to the charge of uninterested hirelings that care not for them, shall be avenged on their impious heads; intemperate Priests, avaricious Clerks, and buckish Parsons, those curses of Christendom, shall be confounded; all secular Hierarchies in the Church shall be tumbled into ruin; lukewarm Formalists, of every denomination, shall call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the wrath of the LAMB; Infidels, seeing the prophecies accomplished before their eyes, shall submit themselves to the long resisted, but gentle yoke of the Gospel; wicked and openly profane men, Men of Rank, especially those corrupters and debauchers of the lower orders of society, shall be converted unto righteousness, or swept from the earth with the besom of destruction; the invidious disdain of illiberal Sectarists shall be succeeded by equal and universal benevolence; and the LORDJESUS CHRIST alone shall be exalted in that day*. The * It may be very much questioned whether the united wisdom of men be equal to such an effectual reformation in Church and State as may be thought perfectly consistent with the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. In civil matters, it may be, there is no government devised by human wisdom, better calculated to promote the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of a country than our own, by King, Lords, and Commons, sup. posing all abuses displaced. Nor do I see any valid objection to the three 8 orders The Bible, MỴ COUNTRYMEN, the Bible, stripped of every human appendage, shall rise superior to all opposi tion, and shall go down with the revolving ages of time, enlightening the faith, enlivening the hope, enkindling the love, enflaming the zeal, and directing the conduct of men, till the world shall be no more. "The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, : But the promises and threatenings of the Holy Writings shall be receiving their awful completion, upon Believers and Unbelievers, throughout those never ending ages, which orders in the Church, of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. It is certain they have prevailed from the days of the Apostles, in some form or other. But here we have abundance of things to be removed, which are inconsistent with the scriptural model. And if our Governours, ecclesiastical and civil, are determined to hold fast what they have gotten, and suffer no abuses to be rectified, the great HEAD of the Church, it may be fully expected, will arise, ere long, and plead his own cause in blood and slaughter. It is morally impossible the present degenerate state of things should continue another century. Without a thorough reformation both in civil and religious concerns (and even such reformation is big with danger) a much shorter time must subvert the present order of things, not only through Europe in general, but in England particularly. Gon grant we may have wisdom to do that of our own accord, which must otherwise be done by constraint. When the iniquity of the Amorites is full, their enemies will receive commission from above to enter their land, and to kill and destroy. The charges and denunciations against the several culprits mentioned in the above page may seem too severe to some gentle spirited persons, who can call evil good and good evil; but in my opinion, they fall greatly below the propriety of the case. The offending Clergy are the curse and the bane of the country, and the wrath of God shall smoke against the faithless shepherds of CHRIST'S flock. - Men of rank likewise are sometimes uncommonly blameable. I myself have known some, who have corrupted and debauched the whole neighbourhood where they lived. The late L-d S-h was a pest in this way. The late S-r W-m M-h also did much mischief among the young men and women all around the place where he resided for several miles. No young person, of more decent appearance than ordinary, could well escape his allurements. Boys and girls were equally his prey. We have many now living, also, who are extremely culpable; and when the scourge of Heaven visits the land, it shall fall peculiarly heavy upon such characters. N shall 1 |